For most NCAA football teams, the season is now over. I know the Army-Navy game is coming up on Saturday, but other than that, I can’t think of any regular season games left to be played. That means what is left are the conference championships and bowl games. In my case, since I’m a Temple alum and fan, I have a particular interest in where they’re going, assuming they get an invite as expected. I have an idea where they might go, and I have dropped in on the blogs and forums to see the opinions and speculation of the more knowledgeable fans. I’ll try to summarize what I understand and what I’ve heard so far.
What is clear is that Temple’s conference, the MAC (Middle American Conference) has tie-ins to three bowl games. First is the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl, which is played at Ford Field in Detroit, then there is the GoDaddy.com bowl, which takes place in Mobile, Alabama, and the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, on Boise State’s blue turf. The MAC provides a team for each of these three bowls, although I don’t think there is a particular order to which team goes, or if the top three teams get a choice as to which bowl to play in. Two of those games take place in frigid weather cities, with the Idaho game played in an open air stadium. The GoDaddy.com Bowl would appeal to me the most if I was a player, simply because it is played in a warm weather city. Detroit lies somewhere near the heart of MAC country, and Ford Field is also host to the MAC Championship game. It’s quite possible then that the MAC Champion team (or the loser of that game) can play two consecutive games in that stadium.
There is something that I didn’t quite understand about the bowl games in general. If my memory is correct, I remember reading somewhere that there were about 15 bowl games being played back in the late 80’s. In 1987 the Sunkist Fiesta Bowl was scooped all competition by arranging a showdown between No.1 Miami and No. 2 Penn State for the national championship, making most of the other bowl games less meaningful. That of course set a precedent, and the 1-2 matchup quickly became the highlight of the year. I haven’t studied the history of college football much, so I don’t know how it developed. I think the national championship game floated for a while between the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl, and the Orange Bowl. I don’t know exactly when the BCS system became effective, although I could find out by looking it up right on this computer. But if that number of 15 bowl games is fairly accurate, then that number has more than doubled in the quarter century since then. I would think that having a national championship game between the two top teams would focus all attention on that one game and make most of the other bowls insignificant. However there are now about 35 bowl games from what I have heard, leaving a place for most of the 120 FBS teams. Having the current system apparently helped the bowl games, not hurt them. A good thing about it is that it gives teams something to look forward to and to play for. Bowl games have been added in cold-weather cities like Detroit and Boise, as well as the Military Bowl, which is played in Washington, DC. I forget if it is in RFK or in Landover, MD, but both of those stadiums are open air.
Getting back to Temple, there have been some other bowl scenarios mentioned. One was the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, which as mentioned above has a contract with the MAC. Other places that have come up are the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl in San Franciso, the New Mexico Bowl, and the Military Bowl. Temple, of course, played in the Eagle Bank Bowl two years ago, which is now the Military Bowl, so there is the possibility they could return. One or two even mentioned the Hawaii Bowl. The blogs devoted to this subject are buzzing as to what everyone thinks it will be. Just about everyone who posted believes there is no good reason why the Owls shouldn’t get a bowl invitation this year. They were shut out of a bowl game last year, despite their 8-4 record, which they posted again this year. But everyone seems to be positive that Temple will not be denied again this time. We’ll just see what happens next Sunday.
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